The Inheritance Version 20
by PrincessMelissa83
Summary: An expansion on my previous oneshot of the same name. A look into the relationship between Sesshomaru and Rin.
1. Chapter 1

_**The Inheritance  
**_**Prologue

* * *

**

"It isn't working," the midwife ground out in exasperation. "The baby won't turn!"

"Please," the mother-to-be gasped out, panting for air. Her face was drenched with sweat and her skin so pale it was nearly translucent. "Please...the baby...save him...save...please..." She squeezed her eyes shut and moaned as her body was wracked with another spasm of pain.

The midwife sat back on her heels, surveying the situation and trying to come up with a plausible plan. Blood had soaked through her kimono and the blankets beneath the laboring woman. More blood had caked on her arms, from her fingertips to her elbows and was beginning to dry. There was so much that she was afraid there would be none left to circulate through the woman's body and what was worse, it was still coming. Nothing she had tried had been able to stop it and despite every attempt, the baby was still coming breech.

"There's too much blood," her assistant whispered, kneeling next to her. The younger girl's kimono was also bloodied. "Even if we get the babe out, how will you stop the bleeding?"

She didn't look at the girl and she didn't answer because she didn't have one. She honestly didn't know. The woman was long past the age where it was feasible for women to be having babies and labor would have been difficult any way, but to have the child turned wrong? It was near impossible.

She stood and knelt by the suffering woman's head. "I can try and cut the babe out from the abdomen. I've never performed the procedure and I've only seen it done once, when I was an apprentice. It's very dangerous and I can't promise that you or the child will live."

The woman lifted her arm, seeming to struggle just doing that, and grasped the midwife's wrist. Her eyes were sunken, hollow, and dark. "Please," she whispered softly. "I know I won't raise this child or watch him grow. But I've lived a good life and his hasn't even begun. Let me speak with my husband and son, then take the baby. Save him by any means necessary."

The midwife nodded and patted the woman's hand, motioning that her assistant should fetch the two.

Both men stood waiting outside. They'd been there for nearly eight hours already, waiting for news. When they saw the girl coming across the lawn, both stood to greet her. The boy seemed to sense that it wasn't good because he stooped slightly, making himself even height with his father. Though just fifteen, he was tall and thin whereas his father had always been short and stocky. The balding man caught on soon after when he saw the tears beginning to fall from the girl's eyes. He questioned her with his eyes and she shook her head, looking at the ground as they both passed her and headed into the hut.

Two hours later, the beautiful wails of a newborn could be heard above the cries of those in the house who had watched the woman draw her last breath just after the babe had been lain on her chest. Mother and child had a brief moment to stare intently at one another before their time expired and one fled for the heavens while the other remained.

The midwife swaddled the newborn in clean blankets and stepped outside the door where both men waited, caught between grief and joy. "A girl," she informed them. "She left you with a daughter." She hadn't the heart to tell them then that the child might not survive the week. She had been early and her body was small, perhaps not as developed as would need be to be healthy.

"A girl..." the older man's eyes misted and he seemed lost in a stupor. She couldn't blame him, however. He had just lost his wife and was now faced with the challenge of raising a newborn alone.

The teenager, however, seemed to gather his wits about him quicker and took the bundle from her arms. "Rin..." he breathed, parting the blanket to see her face. "Mother said she would name her daughter Rin, if she had one, so that is who you will be. Rin."

The midwife nodded and forced a smile. "Very well. There is a young widow in the village who recently gave birth and lost the child. She should still be producing milk. With your permission, I would like to take Rin to her. My assistant will help you prepare your wife's body."

He nodded distractedly and walked into the hut as if he were in a fog. With a nod of her head, the midwife indicated that the teenager should follow her and stiffly made her way back down the trail to the village.

* * *

"Shut up! You are not my mother, so don't try and tell me what I can and cannot do!"

A five year old little girl sat against the large tree on the banks of the stream by their house. Her knees were drawn up to her chest and her forehead rested on them while she rocked back and forth, shoulders shaking with quiet sobs. The louder the voices within the hut got, the harder she cried.

This wasn't a new occurrence. The yelling and arguing between her parents and her brother was a usual event that she had grown used to over the past five years, but now her brother had decided to leave, to become a samurai for the lord who ruled their village. Samurai was a dangerous profession and she knew she would likely never see him again.

"Do not take that tone with her!" Her father's voice roared from within. For being the small man he was, his voice could shake the timbers of their hut with its bass volume.

"You're no better than she is! You betrayed our mother! I hate you both!"

There was silence and then her brother stormed out with a bag over his shoulder. Rin scrambled to her feet and ran to him, throwing her arms around his legs in an attempt to keep him still. Dropping his bag to the ground he reached out and picked her up, hugging her to his chest while she reached her arms around him as far as they would go.

"I've got to go. I'm going to be a soldier. But I'll come back for you, little Rin-chan, I promise." He kissed her cheek.

"What about Father and Mother? Will they come, too?" She leaned her head back and looked at him with large, brown eyes.

His expression hardened. "No. That woman is not our mother. Our mother is dead."

She frowned in confusion as he set her back on the ground. "But..."

"Goodbye, Rin-chan." He patted her head and then shouldered her bag once more and left without looking back.

* * *

"Oh, kami save us! How many?"

"There were nine dead and the girl was injured."

"Thank the gods they just hit those three homes and didn't come into the village."

She opened her eyes and blinked, clearing her vision so that she could make out the rafters above her. She could hear two women talking. It took her a minute to figure out what they were discussing, but it all came flashing back to her now. The fire, the men with bows and swords, the screams of her mother and father and then the pain that had gone through her when an arrow buried itself into her mother's chest, coming through just enough to lodge itself in her shoulder as her mother attempted to carry her to safety.. It was more of a dull ache now, but flared up when she tried to move.

Her mouth was dry and she wanted to call out to the women and ask them for water, but when she opened her mouth, nothing came out, not even a squeak. She did, however, manage a movement which drew their attention to her. One was the village midwife and the other was her assistant. Both Rin recognized with a sense of foreboding.

Since her birth, people in the village had been guarded around her. She was never quite sure why everyone seemed to want to be rid of her quickly, but she thought it had something to do with the whispers and perhaps with the fact that her mother was not the one who had conceived her. Her father had told her once that was the reason Nii-san and Mother argued. She had no way of knowing at the time that the superstitious people of her village saw her as a bad omen, a sort of mark of death, because it was her birth that had killed her mother. She only knew they treated her strangely.

It was later whispered that she was cursed and that it had been the curse that caused the bandits to loot those homes and kill the occupants. It was also decided the gods had seen fit to punish her by taking away her voice to keep her from communicating with the blessed people of the village. In light of such beliefs, it was quite understandable why no one was willing to take the orphaned girl into their home and so she was kicked out of the village as soon as her wounds had healed. She went to the only place she knew, to her home, and stayed there convinced that her brother would hear the news and come for her as he had promised.

But he had never come...

Until today.

* * *

**Author's Note:** It never really tells what happened to Rin's parents so I'm using poetic license (is that the license?). I'm pretty certain that it states in Rin's first appearances that she has a brother who became a samurai or something. Anyway... 


	2. Chapter 2

_**The Inheritance  
**_**Chapter One

* * *

**

Rin looked around her with wide eyes as she followed her lord into the opulent estate that was his home. She'd been there before, but only for a short stay and they had arrived after dark so that the details of his mansion were obscured from her vision. During that time she had also been confined to her rooms with only her nanny and Jaken to keep her company. It had been during the winter season when she'd come the last time and once heavy coats and thick kimono were delivered they had gone again, once more roaming the countryside.

Now, however, it was mid spring and near noon when they entered the village grounds on their way through to the palace like mansion that overlooked everything. She sat on Ah-Un's saddle, sharing the reptilian youkai with another passenger, the wind sorceress they had found three days earlier.

The Shikon no Tama was destroyed, Jaken had said when Rin asked him why the pretty woman had been so ill looking, and Naraku had been killed. She knew vaguely what the Shikon no Tama was from bits and pieces of conversation she'd picked up from Jaken, Sesshomaru and the red-clad man they sometimes encountered. Though she might not have understood the significance of the Tama, she _did_ know that Naraku's death was a good thing. He had ordered her to be taken from her lord and had sent the double faced doctor, Suikotsu, after her.

She was curious as to how they had found the wind witch at all. Sesshomaru-sama had told them the woman was dead and she had not seen him wield Tenseiga over her body. Was it possible someone else could perform the same magic as her master?

She hadn't been able to ask the woman, though, because not long after she'd stumbled into their camp she had passed out and had not roused again since. Now she sat on Ah-Un's saddle, leaned against the two giant necks while Rin sat behind her.

The castle, as they approached, towered three levels tall with white paneled walls and black tiled roof. Various windows and doors let in air and light though she could see no movement behind them. As they came to the gates that separated Sesshomaru's private land from the rest of the village, several men in uniform greeted them, bowing low to Sesshomaru as they passed. They eyed her with a mixture of curiosity and disgust.

At the front entrance, four others waited to greet them, two women and two men all dressed in plain kimono and hakama. They bowed low to the ground as he approached and then stood with their heads bowed awaiting instruction.

"Prepare a room and place her in it. Jaken, summon Uta and Kiet. This Sesshomaru will speak with them in my office." With those short, clipped orders, he disappeared into the house without looking back.

One of the men took Ah-Un's bridle just as she slid off his back and onto the ground. The other gathered the female youkai into his arms and followed one of the women through the door way while Jaken grumbled and set on his way to find the two women Sesshomaru had sent for. Unlike the impish youkai, the servants of the castle did not question Sesshomaru's decisions but simply carried out his orders. The last gabbed Rin's arm and ushered her quickly through the halls to the rooms that had been assigned to her on her first visit. It was there she was left to herself and told not to leave that area. With a sigh, she slumped to the floor and conjured up new songs to sing.

* * *

Jaken was still mumbling under his breath when he reached the hut where Uta resided and knocked impatiently at her door. When the flap was pulled aside, the figure of an older woman, plump with graying hair, stood in his path. She was only three heads taller than himself, but her massive weight did not seem to hinder her in the least. Her hair had been pulled back into a braid and then balled on top of her head. A black star on her forehead, fangs, and pointed ears were the only things marking her as a youkai.

Inwardly, he shivered. Bat youkai had always caused his flesh to crawl, but the beady black eyes of this one in particular did nothing to ease his paranoia. And neither did the fact that when she spoke, though her Japanese was excellent, her voice carried the undercurrent of another accent. She was born in what would eventually become the Ukraine, but had relocated to the Japanese islands after her first few centuries and had finally settled in Sesshomaru's village.

"Lord Sesshomaru demands your presence at once," he informed her, forcing himself not to shiver.

She raised her brow, eyeing him closely. "Does he now?" The faintest hint of a smile tugged the corner of her lips.

He banged the end of his two headed staff on the ground. "Do not keep him waiting!"

She hissed and thrust her body forward as if to attack him and the imp yelped, jumping back several feet. "Why me!" He demanded of the heavens as he hightailed it away from her hut as quickly as possible, her cackling laughter following him as he went.

* * *

There was a knock on his door before the panel slid open to reveal Jaken. Behind him was another youkai, a young woman in floor length blue kimono. The material was bare, but gave a sort of radiant quality to her person that could not be ignored. She was pale skinned with long white hair that hung in curls down her back, just below her waist. She kept her brown eyes cast to the floor as she knelt by the threshold.

"I requested the scholar's presence," Sesshomaru stated in his monotone voice without looking up from the scroll he had been reading.

Jaken shook with nervousness. "I went to the scholar's home, my lord," he stuttered, trying to back away from the doorway without tripping over the kneeling woman. "I gave him your message, my lord, but...but..."

"If I may, my lord?" The woman spoke up from the other side of the door. "My uncle spoke with your messenger and took the liberty of guessing my lord's reasons for calling upon him. He sent me in his place, believing that I would be better suited for the tasks my lord may have in mind."

Sesshomaru said nothing, but gave the slightest of nods, indicating that she could stand and enter. As she did so, the imp took the opportunity to flee. The woman closed the sliding door behind her and knelt once more, waiting.

The inu youkai set the scroll on a large wooden desk, elaborately carved and stained with a dark laquer. The only chair in the room was the one on which he sat. It too had been intricately carved and was made of the same dark wood with gold upholstered padding on the seat. Inkwells, feathered pens, and open scrolls were scattered across the surface of the desk. On the wall behind him and running along side the desk were floor to ceiling book shelves on which were more cylinders containing scrolls, a few leather bound volumes and collections of nick-knacks from not only Japan but other countries across the globe. Three windows on the outer wall, paneled with glass, allowed light to come into the room, but there were also several iron lanterns that could be lit in the evenings as well as a tall wrought iron candelabra on one side of his desk that held six tapered candles. A matching snuffer hung from one of the arms.

"What is your name?" He glanced at her only briefly before dipping a quill into an inkwell and moving it across the parchment in smooth strokes.

"I am Umika, daughter of Jiro."

He recognized the clan now. Her grandparents had come from Europe not long after his father had become taiyoukai. They were inu, a clan known as poodle from France, if he recalled correctly. "You are a scholar as well."

She nodded. "Yes, my lord."

"I do not tolerate ignorance in my presence," he announced, finally standing as he left the ink to dry on the paper. He came around the edge of the desk and stood over her, looking down his nose at the top of her head. "The human child is uneducated. If she is to continue to follow this Sesshomaru, she must learn."

Umika kept her head lowered to hide her smile. "If it is my lord's wish, I will teach the child."

"You will begin tomorrow." He turned his back on her then, and walked away, indicating that she was dismissed.

Just as she had stood and was sliding the door open, Jaken entered once more, nearly barreling into her. She stepped aside and let him pass, nodding once to the woman who knelt outside the door and left.

"My lord, Uta has finally decided to show herself," Jaken huffed, glaring at the older woman who bared a fang at him.

"The child is in her room." Sesshomaru didn't bother to indicate that she should enter or that Jaken should leave them be. He had little to say to the youkai as she already knew her responsibility.

Uta nodded. "Are there any specific instructions my lord wishes to give?" Her voice was gravely and rough, but much more respectful towards the inu youkai than to his impish servant.

Sesshomaru was seated at his desk once more. "She is free to do as she will - within reason."

Uta nodded once more, secretly glad that she would not have to keep the hyperactive child locked in only the two rooms given to her. Large as they were, it was a cramped space for someone as curious and playful as her charge.

The old woman bowed again and then stood, leaving the tai youkai and imp behind in the study while she climbed the stairs to her charge's suite.


End file.
